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Exercise reduces bathroom trips
in the ‘wee’ hours…

Middle-aged men take note: researchers have found yet another reason why you should exercise.

A team from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine found that physical activity may lower the frequency with which men need to get up in the night to urinate.

The researchers studied data from thousands of men to establish rates of nocturia (waking up twice or more nightly to urinate) and severe nocturia (three times a night or more). Nocturia can be caused by an enlarged prostate, overproduction of urine, low bladder capacity and sleep problems. It becomes more common with age and is thought to be experienced by more than half of men over the age of 45.

Men who were physically active for one or more hours a week were 13 per cent less likely than their non-active counterparts to have nocturia, and 34 per cent less likely to have severe nocturia.

While there’s no clear cause-and-effect, it is speculated that benefits of physical activity such as reduced body size, improved sleep, lowered inflammation and decreased nervous system activity could reduce the incidence of nocturia.